Maryland
Speaker Jones: ‘We aren’t going to deny children their constitutional rights’ – Maryland Matters
As Maryland lawmakers take on criticism for a proposed juvenile justice reform bill, House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) testified Thursday in its support.
Jones, who rarely appears at bill hearings, spoke first before a packed Judiciary Committee room on House Bill 814 – Juvenile Law Reform. She expressed some frustration at how the legislation has been characterized by critics.
“I brought this bill forward because our juvenile system is clearly failing a small set of children who are repeat offenders. They are not monsters or teen villains,” she said. “They’re children and they are increasingly calling out for our help because they are not getting the services they need.”
Jones continued: “I know this bill is going to disappoint both sides of the debate, and I’m comfortable with that reality. What I’m not comfortable with is the way the debate around this bill…has been framed. In fact, I’m incredibly disappointed. We aren’t going to deny children their constitutional rights.”
Jones’ presence at Thursday’s marathon hearing represents lawmakers’ willingness to tweak the current juvenile justice system to combine rehabilitation with accountability. While she possesses plenty of political clout within the General Assembly, the question is how much weight she carries with the general public, many of whom call crime their top worry and are seeking tougher penalties for juvenile offenders.
The speaker has said the legislature won’t roll back juvenile justice reform measures that the legislature passed in 2022, but instead would work this year to improve the overall system.
The state Department of Juvenile Services (DJS), which oversees programs for troubled youth, has been criticized by some state’s attorneys, law enforcement officials and residents for not doing enough to help those young people and their families.
Del. Luke Clippinger (D-Baltimore City), chair of the Judiciary Committee, which reviewed the legislation for slightly more than five hours Thursday, said the proposed juvenile bill would require a review of data relating to arrests, completion of programs and recidivism from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System Center.
The legislation would also require the Commission on Juvenile Justice Reform and Emerging and Best Practices to complete several tasks such as reviewing the department’s education and diversionary programs, researching evidence-based programs and reviewing fatalities that involve children under the supervision of DJS. That commission was established by the 2022 legislation but hasn’t been fully seated.
The bill would more than double the number of members on the commission to include representatives with the state Department of Health, a private child welfare agency, the state Department of Education and Department of State Police.
“I believe this is sorely needed,” Clippinger said about the commission.
Alice Wilkerson, executive director of Advance Maryland, a nonprofit organization that assists other groups with advocacy efforts, praised the bill for including a commission.
But that’s where the compliments on the bill ended.
Wilkerson, who appeared on behalf of the Maryland Youth Justice Coalition, joined at least two dozen criminal justice advocates, lawyers and residents who testified against the legislation. A committee’s speaker list showed a total of 80 people who offered written or oral testimony opposing the measure.
“This bill will exacerbate racial disparities,” Wilkerson told the committee. “How will this improve safety? Will this lead to positive behavioral change? This legislation will grow the juvenile justice system, placing further personnel and budget strain on DJS that will lead to more cuts to services and programs.”
‘Fear, rather than evidence’
Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue led those who opposed the bill who raised one central question: Where’s the data?
They were criticizing a part of the bill that would allow the Department of Juvenile Services to send to juvenile court children as young as 10 who have been arrested for serious offenses, including those involving a firearm, motor vehicle theft, animal abuse, or a third-degree sexual offense.
According to the Department of Juvenile Services, complaints for youth under age 13 decreased by nearly 1,100 in fiscal year 2022 to 301 last fiscal year. Those complaints include crimes of violence, misdemeanors and Children in Need of Supervision referrals, which involve youths who need guidance, treatment, or rehabilitation.
“Proponents of the bill have alluded that the intent is to improve public safety. The impact of the bill is it that will impact it will incarcerate more Black children in marginalized communities,” Dartigue said. “We must base our discussions on facts, data and the evidence-based information. Despite the intent of public safety, House Bill 814 raises concerns about the perpetuation of systemic biases and the potential for decisions based on fear, rather than evidence.”
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy (D), who spoke in support of the legislation, cited some figures from the county’s police department.
Larceny arrests of juveniles decreased from 387 in 2019 to 128 last year; arrests for disorderly conduct went down from 32 in 2019 to five last year.
McCarthy said the numbers of more serious crimes by juveniles in his jurisdiction increased, such as shootings from 16 in 2019 to 40 last year, and auto thefts from 44 to 364. He also discussed those figures at a Jan. 17 briefing before the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee.
“There have been declines in crime, but when it comes to violent crime and the crime that people care about, the numbers are exploding,” McCarthy said.
Some of the same people who testified Thursday may return to Annapolis on Friday because the Senate version legislation will be discussed before the Judicial Proceedings Committee.
Maryland
Maryland elections officials deal with threats of violence, turnover concerns ahead of presidential election
BALTIMORE Since the last presidential election, Maryland has seen a concerning rise in turnover among our state’s election officials—with almost half new to their positions—according to research from the Bipartisan Policy Center.
As of January 2024, Maryland saw turnover in 11 voting jurisdictions.
Turnover is also on the rise nationally according to a CBS News investigation.
What is driving the exodus? Some blame an increasingly hostile environment, fueled by citizens who do not trust the election system.
Documenting Threats in Harford County
Stephanie Taylor oversees elections in Harford County.
She gets a lot of correspondence from the public—and keeps all of it in a binder with the title “Love and Not So Much Love Notes” on the cover.
“These are our nice letters, and these are our nasty letters,” she showed WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren
“There’s a lot of cursing. We’ve been called Nazis,” Taylor said. “We’ve been accused of cheating, changing voter turnouts, changing the results, which is very hurtful to us because we take great pride in our job that we do here.”
Hellgren asked her what that says about where Maryland stands right now. “There are a lot of angry people who do not trust the election process. I don’t know how to get through to them,” she said.
Since the 2020 presidential election, Maryland has seen a 46 percent turnover rate among election officials. That is larger than the 36 percent national average.
“Have you had people leave because they could not take it?” Hellgren asked.
“Yes,” Taylor admitted. “One person who was with the office for quite a long time. She had a key role in this office. Just the stress of it—she’s just like, ‘I’m done.’ And she quit.”
To make sure her staff members feel safe, Taylor has used grants to dramatically increase security at their office and warehouse in Forest Hill.
“This is one thing everyone in the office said we needed to enclose this after all the craziness started happening after January 6th,” Taylor said as she showed WJZ the public entrance area.
She had bullet- and bomb-deflecting glass installed that will not shatter.
“We have changed the whole look of this office. We used to have an open reception area. We put walls up. We put glass in. It is not bulletproof glass, but it will change the direction of a bullet. We have coating on our windows that if someone were to put a bomb outside, this coating would catch it and it would just drop it so there wouldn’t be shards,” Taylor said.
There are also new cameras and stronger locks.
“Now, if it’s unlocked, it has a high-powered magnet and you have to be buzzed in,” she said at a secondary door to the board room.
“We have our own FBI contact. I never in my life thought I would say that I have my own FBI contact. It just never even crossed my mind,” Taylor told Hellgren.
“They were being disruptive, calling us names. We got a threat in one of the meetings that we got on tape. I did turn that in to the FBI and the sheriff’s department. It’s just the way the world looks at us now. It’s so different,” she said.
New Law Means Stiffer Penalties
Earlier this year in Annapolis, the General Assembly took action to protect poll workers, election judges and their families from threats which have been on the rise across the country.
Citing the turnover, Governor Wes Moore’s administration advocated for and and won changes to the law. There are now tougher penalties against those convicted of threatening election workers, with fines increasing from $1,000 to $2,500.
“It is becoming harder to recruit election judges. It is becoming harder to recruit elections administrators, and we need to respond to that,” said Eric Luedtke, the governor’s chief legislative officer at a hearing on February 21st.
Violators could also get up to three years behind bars.
During that hearing about the legislation, Baltimore County’s elections director revealed she, too, had been threatened.
“After receiving a threat firsthand, I was overwhelmingly thankful for the protection from my county, the FBI and homeland security,” Ruie Lavoie, the director of Baltimore County elections, told lawmakers.
WJZ asked Maryland’s state elections administrator Jared DeMarinis whether the new law does enough to deter people from threatening election workers. “I hope so. I think time will tell on that, but I think you have to have the first step and I think this was a great first step,” DeMarinis said.
State Safeguards the Vote
DeMarinis took over as elections administrator from Linda Lamone last year.
She had served in that position for more than 35 years, but DeMarinis also worked in that office for almost two decades.
“Yes, I’m a new person, but it’s not like I don’t know the electoral process,” DeMarinis told Hellgren.
On the threats, DeMarinis acknowledged “those types of incidents really shake you to the core.”
He said, “This is really trying to take it to a new level where you’re trying to inflict bodily harm or even death upon you know a person just doing their job and making sure that our democracy works.”
He made it a priority to stamp out misinformation and added a “rumor control” section to the state elections website.
“Before, there was a trust. There was an understanding in the process here, and there’s a segment of the population now that just doesn’t believe in any of that,” DeMarinis said.
DeMarinis is also pushing young people to get involved as election judges and poll workers.
He is aware that when elections officials leave, so does their experience and knowledge of the process. That is why he is partnering more experienced elections officials with newer ones to lessen the impact of any turnover.
And DeMarinis believes that turnover is not always a negative.
“Turnover brings new blood, new ideas, new points of view to the process. It helps streamline things. But yes, there is a concern about losing a lot of institutional knowledge,” he said.
A Veteran in Charge in Baltimore City
“I just don’t want to believe that people are not interested in an important process as this,” said Armstead Jones, Baltimore City’s election director
Baltimore has one of the longest-serving elections directors in the state.
Armstead Jones said in the city, the problem is not threats, but getting enough people motivated to staff the polls.
“At one time, we’d have as many as 3,200 election judges working Election Day and those numbers have dropped over the years,” Jones said. “I believe in this last election, we may have had about 1,500 judges to work. Maybe 2,100 trained, 600 did not show so those numbers are getting lower each time.”
The state remains committed to smooth and transparent elections, despite the challenges.
“Having that full confidence in the system is the underpinning of everything that we do with good, solid elections,” DeMarinis said.
Staying Despite Challenges
“I love the job. I love the people I work with,” said Taylor of her Harford County position. “If you’re in a polling location, it’s so much fun to be there and you see people coming in and taking part in democracy.”
She told Hellgren she has no plans to leave and be part of the turnover despite uncertainty about the future.
“Do you see it getting any better?” Hellgren asked. “I’ll let you know after this election. It depends on what happens after this election,” she said.
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